Abstract
Even though the earth has 1400 million km3 of water, only 2.7 % of this is fresh water, of which 75 % is frozen in the polar regions, 2 % is surface water in rivers and 23 % is groundwater. Thus, groundwater is the largest source of fresh water available. Thus, the future potential lies in tapping the groundwater potential and using it in a sustainable manner. In India, the area irrigated by groundwater (39 million ha, 51 %) is almost on par with that irrigated by surface water (37 million ha, 49 %). Investment in groundwater (well) irrigation is by private sources (farmers), while that in surface irrigation is by public resources. However, there are no precise estimates of water prices of both surface water and groundwater. Due to public investment in surface water, users may not appreciate the value of water, unlike in the case of private investments in groundwater irrigation. In this chapter, the value of groundwater used for irrigation, cost of electricity required to lift the groundwater and net returns to groundwater irrigation in hard-rock areas (HRAs) are highlighted for an indication regarding the value of groundwater used for irrigation.
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Notes
- 1.
The points provided by Sri V. Jagannathan, Senior Hydrogeologist, Central Groundwater Board, Southwestern Region, Bangalore with regard to this index are greatly appreciated.
- 2.
The section on the nature of property rights and externality is drawn from Chandrakanth et al. (1997).
- 3.
Singh (1992).
- 4.
Nagaraj et al. (1994).
- 5.
Ciriacy-Wantrup, S.V. (1968)
- 6.
Dasgupta (1982).
- 7.
Satisha (1997).
- 8.
Balasubramanian (1998).
References
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Ciriacy-Wantrup SV (1968) Resource conservation: economics and policies. Division of Agricultural Economics. University of California, Berkeley, pp 142
Dasgupta Partha (1982) The control of resources. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Nagaraj N, Chandrakanth MG, Gurumurthy (1994) “Borewell failure in drought-prone areas of Southern India: a case study”. Indian J Agric Econ 49(1):101–106
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Singh Chatrapati (Ed) (1992) Water Law in India. The Indian Law Institute, New Delhi
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Chandrakanth, M. (2015). Locating Interference and Valuing Water. In: Water Resource Economics. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2479-2_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2479-2_8
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